Quote Originally Posted by Sheogorath View Post
On the subject of volleys, I think it would be great if we could see a difference in the firing methods of units.
I did notice that, in MTW2, gunpowder units with higher experience have a different firing method than unexperienced ones. In unexperienced units, the front rank fires, then walks back, while the second rank walks forward. In experienced ones, the front rank simply kneels and the rear rank fires while they reload...which increases your rate of fire quite a lot.

This actually does make sense, since firing by rank was something generally restricted to highly trained and disciplined units. Not something your average conscript fresh off the farm would do.

So, seeing something like...totally undisciplined fire after the first volley (which would be quite ragged) for fresh units, then nice, regular volleys for bronze units (going by the chevron system here) followed by free-fire, a slightly faster rate of fire for silver units, with no free-fire, and the ability to fire by rank for gold level units.

Just a rough idea, of course.
This will almost certainly be represented in the game by technology research. CA have already said as you get better tech you can research new formations and firing drills to help make your troops more efficient and faster shots.

It would be great if higher experience units were the only ones that could use certain drills though.